The Viva Vine: vol #3, no #5: November / December 1994The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act
In the United States seven of the eight billion animals slaughtered for human food each year
are chickens. These birds, plus millions of turkeys, spent laying hens, ducks and small birds,
are specifically excluded from federal humane slaughter laws. Current commercial practice is to
stun the birds electrically, but millions are missed by stunning equipment and remain fully
conscious. So-called "spent" laying hens and small birds such as quail do not receive even this
small mercy. Unstunned and poorly stunned birds are then subjected to having their neck vessels
cut, causing severe and extended agony while they are left hanging upside down by their feet in
the "bleedout tunnel" before being plunged into a tank of scalding water, in many cases still
alive, conscious, and breathing.

Send $1 donation plus an SASE to United Poultry Concerns to obtain petitions directed at the
U.S. Congress for the passage of the H.R. 649 Humane Methods of Poultry Slaughter Act.

Last December, four men accepted a $15,000 challenge from British activists to live for a
week like battery-caged hens. The men quit after 18 hours, emerging from their 3-ft. square,
6-ft. high cage sore, hungry, and cold, unable to endure for even one day what hens must endure
for their entire 2-year lives.
-- from PAWS Action, newsletter of Progressive Animal Welfare Society